Graham gets $13 million this year, $8 million next year

Some of the real numbers have begun to bubble up regarding the Jimmy Graham contract. And they look pretty good for a player who would have otherwise made $7 million under the franchise tag in 2014.

Per a source with knowledge of the contract, Graham received $12 million to sign, along with a $1 million base salary for 2014. That’s $13 million in the first year (math!) and a cap number of $4 million.

The rest of the guaranteed money falls into 2015 salary, which is guaranteed for injury only, for now. The $8 million Graham is due to make next year becomes fully guaranteed on the third day of the 2015 waiver period. This means that, as a practical matter, the Saints won’t be cutting Graham before the injury guarantee becomes a full and complete guarantee.

Cutting Graham in the days after the next Super Bowl, more than a month before the start of the new league year, would result in $9 million in cap dollars flowing back to 2014. Which presumably would force the Saints to engage in some contract restructurings on an emergency basis.

Even if the Saints were to cut Graham before the next $8 million becomes fully guaranteed, Graham would get $13 million for one season and then become a free agent well before free agency opens.

So Graham either gets $21 million over two years or $13 million over one and a crack at the open market. Either way, that’s better than $7 million for 2014 — and it’s a lot better than the $4 million or so Graham has earned in four NFL seasons.

Well, I can now sleep soundly at night knowing that Jimmy Graham is finally being paid. All those restless nights spent worrying about how he would manage to get by on only four million dollars over four years were worth it, though.

He honored his initial rookie contract without once complaining about it. He didn’t say a word about the current negotiations until today AFTER he signed. Both sides used all of the tools at their disposal. That was just business. Now, time to play football. Lookout, Falcons. September 7 is coming.

Gronk is statistically better in almost every category, I don’t know how anyone would claim Jimmy is way better, let alone better.

Factor in GP, big bump for Jimmy, you have to be present to make a difference.

Jimmy also gets waaaay more targets via Nola’s pass heavy offense.

My last point is that Jimmy is called upon to run block a fraction of what Gronk does. That may be a reason for Gronks injuries/wearing down, who knows. But Gronk is a REAL TE, and imo, the best in the business today

Couldn’t be happier for Jimmy Graham. If anyone ever deserved this kind of money for playing a game, it’s him. His life was no game and he’s always smiling, always happy on the field. Wanted to see him leave the Saints, for sure, but the work he & Brees have put in to make him the superstar that he has become makes him staying a good story, too.

As a Saints fan I’m glad we found a way to get Jimmy paid and not destroy our cap situation at the same time. Teams fight to get every dollar they can get, so I don’t have any problem with a player doing the same thing. Both sides seemed to understand it was just business. And I don’t see Jimmy complaining in a few years about the contract. He handled himself quite well through all this imo.

It confirms that the top NFL Tight Ends are underpaid and they have been for many years. New Orleans only negotiated a higher amount to avoid the risk of Jimmy winning his appeal.
Q) Why do the top TEs always seem to incur the prospect of the franchise tag and then negotiate a better deal?
A) Because it is cheaper than facing the free market.

Over the past 4 seasons Graham has played on a rookie contract that paid about $4 million over 4 years despite producing at an all Pro level and generally considered either the best or second best tight end in the league. He watched as New England tore up rookie contracts for Gronk and Hernandez before they ended and gave each big deals that were more in line with their production. Yet he didn’t say a peep. Never threatened to hold out. Now he played out his contract and is negotiating a new contract and we have people on here calling him greedy for trying to get as much as he can. You fans with that mindset are the absolute worse. The man does everything the right way. Doesn’t hold out. Honors his below market rookie deal to the end and because he will not sign his new deal immediately with the team and uses every legal negotiation tactics at his disposal all of a sudden he’s greedy?

@thepftpoet–Had the Vikings scored more points than New Orleans, they (might) already have their 2009 Lombardi Trophy. However, as has been their wont, the Vikes choked on the big one. Some things never change.

To answer the question of where they get the money: Graham’s cap hit in 2014 is only 4M. His cap hit in 2015 is 11M.

The Saints can fit the 4M in, and they can probably squeeze the 11M in with some restructuring elsewhere. There’s basically no way they can fit the 12.5M in for 2016 and 2017, but it won’t matter since Brees will probably have retired by then anyway.

What Saints haters really don’t want to hear right now is this clears up about $4 million on the Saints cap this year. So we can go out and sign another good WR, DL or pass rushing LB when the first cuts come in. Loaded for bear this year baby.

Saints just created an additional $3mm to their 2014 cap as they already had JG on the books for $7mm this year. The Saints will be able to absorb the $8mm in 2015 and as the cap continues to increase the Saints will be in a good situation going forward as they will restructure Brees after this year and reduce his 2015 number. PayLoo has this under control. Worry about your own teams as they obviously don’t understand how the cap works.

‘So Graham either gets $21 million over two years or $13 million over one and a crack at the open market. Either way, that’s better than $7 million for 2014 — and it’s a lot better than the $4 million or so Graham has earned in four NFL seasons.’

That’s a lotta cheddar. I’m just wondering, where the “team concept” goes when it comes to salaries? Take the salary cap $133.000.000 divide it by 53 you get $2.509.433.96 So at $13.000.000 Jimmy gets the salary of 5.2 players. What does ownership say when a guy making the league minimum comes asking for a raise and they’re up against the salary cap? Do they play the players against each other?

xxsweepthelegxx-Those Boston Baked Beans must have you high!!! But like you said you have to be in the game to play. When he plays a full season again (which doesn’t look that likely again) then we will see. But the best stas are in Grahams favor. thepftpoet-The Saints are cursed. Cursed w/winning seasons now. Super Bowl wins: Saints-1 Vikings 0 for 5 or 6? brokebackbrees-That one season must really sting. lol

Everybody talking about the New Orleans Saints they can’t help it because they has the best GM, Coaches, Players, we just doing what we do try and get better. And the Saints are getting good at it this why everybody are HATERS of the Saints we just a NFL team from Louisiana we call the boot. Its our time to shine it doesn’t matter who in Line all I know is when the Saints hit the field they come to play see you guys in regular season Saints coming lace up.

garyridgway says:
Jul 15, 2014 4:17 PM
sb44champs says:
Jul 15, 2014 3:59 PM
@ garyridgway:
Truth must really hurt huh? lol
……………………..
The truth is we won the Super Bowl. The truth is it feels great. Keep “lol”ing and we’ll keep knocking the Saints out of the playoffs like your last 2 times. What a dummy
=====================
The real truth is the Saints did the same thing, won the Super Bowl a few years back since you apparently forgot. Saints also have been WAY MORE CONSISTENT over the last 8 years then the one year wonder Hawks so nighty night. Have fun when the Saints secure the number 1 seed and the Hawks will FINALLY have to play us in OUR DOME where the Seahags will most certainly LOSE !!!!

actually Jimmy will see all the money. His first year pay is 1 million, second year is 8 million, third year is 9 million and forth year is 10 million. with the cap going up it is very workable. And besides, unless it is a huge hit, it is not, or your play has decreased considerably, the Saints have shown that they will pay the whole contract to players. So Jimmy will be assured that he will see all 40 million and be sorta young enough to get one more big payday. So the Saints win and Jimmy wins by signing the 4 year and not a 6 year.